Things Television Shows Are Made Of

 In my search for the waitress who could be Jason Prescott's Alibi, My travels took me to the Philadelphia suburb of Bayside and a tony little diner...

 "God, I would never want you on my trail Kevin....You can locate damn near everybody.."said my wife , Sepia, who was free today and was spending the day with me..

 "I don't know about everybody....but I'd find your body...lawd have mercy, "I said looking at her..

 "Ohhh stop it... Although I do like that after all these years of marriage, you're still fresh with me." she giggled.

A waitress poured us both a cup of coffee as we gave our order.....

"You have a waitress here named Rita Gallagher?" I asked...

"Yeah, we do." said the waitress..

'She working this shift?" I asked.. I already knew she was.

"Sure is." said our waitress..

"Could you send her over to this table...I'm uh an old friend." I laughed..

"Sure...I'll go get her." she said.

A cheerful young African American woman walked over to our table...She looked at me and Sepia..

"Hi...Did you two ask for me? I'm afraid I don't know you." she said..

 ''You don't...My husband here has been looking for you." said Sepia.

 "You're Rita Gallagher, you used to work at the Horizon diner in South Philly...You are one hard lady to find..It took me a minute..but I found you...I'm a private investigator from Philadelphia...My name is Kevin Morris...I work for the attorney who is re trying the Jason Prescot case...She's trying to get him a new trial...I understand you said that at the time of the murder he was eating breakfast at your restaurant, am I correct?" I asked.

"Yes...and I told the detective that...uh a Lieutenant Tragg...I told him that...and I told his lawyer, a pretty boy named Christopher Daley, who spent more time slipping me his phone number and trying to date me the same story...I was never called to testify by his lawyer and that cop either didn't believe me or he just forgot what I told him...and Jason got convicted and sent up for 10-25... I even wrote a letter to the firm that was representing him, Townsend, Daley and associates..I have no idea what became of it..That was three years ago.." said Rita.

 "Right now, that lawyer is trying to get Jason a hearing before the Wrongful Conviction Unit...If you would testify, it would go a long way towards getting his conviction thrown out and him being released.. Now you're certain he was eating breakfast with you right?" I said.

"He was my friend....He came in every morning ,same time and had breakfast...and I waited on him...He was there that morning, around 9:00 am when that bank was being held up...As soon as I heard the story on the news, I went to the Police....Homicide....I told Lt. Tragg  what I knew..He didn't even write it down... and then I visited Jason...and I told his Attorney....But I was never called as a defense witness..and that Lt. Tragg never told the .D.A.  It never came up and Jason got convicted..That's when I wrote that letter to the firm representing him...but nothing ever came of it.." she said..

"Well, That same woman who prosecuted him is no longer in the D.A.'s office...she wants to make this right...That's who I'm working for ..She is meeting with Jason now up at the prison in Chester..She's going to get him a hearing next week with the Wrongful Conviction Unit in Philly...Here is the address....Can I count on you to show up?" I said..

"I'd be glad to...Just give me the time and date...Here is my address....I'll take off that day.." she said.

 "Thank you." I said.

 "Ouuu here comes our order.."said Sepia.

 Two Omelettes made to order...A Western for Sepia, Steak, Onions and Green Peppers in mine..

 Hash Browns

 and scrapple.

 "Mmmm this food is nice and hot and delish..." said Sepia.

We really liked this diner..


II-

 At the State Prison in Chester...

 A strange meeting is taking place in the visitor's room...

 Inmate Jason Prescott is facing the woman who prosecuted him and put him behind bars...

"It's not everyday that an Assistant District Attorney comes up here to see someone she put away six years ago and says she wants to DEFEND that person...so excuse me if I'm a little wary.." he said with a slight smile...

He hadn't noticed Jazzy's sexy body six years ago...He noticed it now..

 "I'm not an Assistant District Attorney anymore...In fact...I haven't been for about four years now..I'm in private practice and an Attorney who was murdered last week brought it to my attention that he withheld information concerning your case that could have made all the difference in you being on the street and you being here....I would have never prosecuted you if I known you had an alibi..A waitress named Rita Gallagher told us that you were eating breakfast at her diner, miles away in South Philly at the time of that bank robbery...My investigator found her and she is willing to testify next week before the Wrongful Conviction Unit.... She told my investigator that she told the Homicide Detective and she told Chris, you're Defense Attorney this , but she was never called to testify and that detective never told me.." said Jazzy..

 ''Wow...Chris man, he really dropped the ball on this...Was he the one who was murdered?" asked Jason..

"Unfortunately no...His boss was and he's been charged with his murder....I'm defending him on that murder charge in the future, but my main function right now is to right a six year wrong...I'm gonna get you out of here..You're going to be transferred to CFC in Philly at the end of the week and next week is your hearing before a judge.. We've got Rita's testimony and my investigator located four other people who can vouch for you being in that restaurant that day at that time..."said Jazzy.

 "What about that snitch Hibbler, who lied on me?" asked Jason..

 "He won't be lying on anyone else...He's dead! He died of a heroin overdose six years ago, right after you were convicted...Your friends, McClain, Uleg , M'Boli were all murdered and the guy who murdered them, a guy named Dwyer was shanked in the Corrections Center."said Jazzy,

 "Damn, and they never got any of that money from the bank job back....Somebody has cleaned up well." said Jason Prescott.

"Yes...That's what we think.."said Jazzy.






III-

I was able to get into the law office suite of Townsend and Daley....Thanks to the help of Attorney Kayla Bennett, who once worked for them...They were in the business of breaking up the firm and dividing into two seperate firms..They allowed us to come in and look over old files..

 "Thank you so much for getting me access to this office Kayla." I said.

 "Aww, it's the least I could do..You've helped me on sooo many cases.." she said.. "What are you looking for?" she asked.

 'Something that links Mr. Charles Townsend to anyone related to his murder...and to a bank robbery, a largely unsolved bank robbery from six years ago.."I said.

 "Ouuu you have the kind of cases, Television shows are based on.."said Kayla..

I went through all of his appointment and case files from six years ago and came across an interesting name..

"Well I'll be.. Oleg M'Boli was his client...This guy ran a pawn shop, that was actually a front for money laundering of drug money...He also put down scores...Any Jewelry Store or Bank Heist in the neighborhood had his mark on it...He supplied the whole layout of the places and hired the talent that pulled em off...Police never could put a tag on him because everytime he got popped..His Attorney, Charlie Townsend got him off... I see he represented him several times..." I said and made xerox copies of everything..

 "Here, keep these in your breifcase.." I said..

"Sure Kevin." said Kayla.

I checked his phone log  for the days leading up to and after the bank robbery..

He called Mr. M'boli several times, the week before and after the bank robbery and he made a call to this cool guy...Eddie Dwyer, a contract killer....Who he never represented... These bank records show money transferred into Dwyer's account after the day he shot to death McClain , Uleg and Mboli..and a series of late night calls from a Charles Estep..." I said. I made xerox copies of the phone records and gave them to Kayla.

"Who is he?" asked Kayla.

"I don't know...but I plan to find out..Let's get out of here.." I said.. "You know where my office is..Give all of that to Harry Charles or Sean Jackson....Tell them to lock it in my safe." I said.

"Sure Kevin." said Kayla.

IV-

 We ended our day in Sam Mother's Diner..

 "Ohhhh girl, the food was so good...It's a nice little diner." said my wife Sepia in talking about the diner we had gone to in Bayside..

 "You know Bayside has a lot of nice little spots we all should check out."said Jazzy..

 "I've found out a lot of interesting things about a lot of interesting people connected to Mr. Townsend.. I'll share them with you tomorrow Jazzy...I'll bring them to your office." I said.

 "This case sure has some legs on it." said Dabnis.

 "It does...it's the things TV shows are made of ."said Jessica Sanchez Burrows.

 "I'll say." said her husband Chip as we waited for our orders...

"Heads up...Here comes trouble.."said ADA Karen Page.

Lt. Tragg walked in...I knew he had been following me and shadowing my every move from the time I left Bayside and re-entered the city...He saw all of us sitting at a big table and he stopped by..

"Alright Morris..I happen to know that you were in Townsend's Law Office this afternoon.. Don't lie and say you weren't...I know you were..Now I want to know what you found and I want to see it , right now or I'm going to run you in and wipe my hind parts with your license.." he snarled.

 "Oh My God Arthur, don't be crass." said a disgusted ADA Karen Page..

 "We are trying to eat here.."said Jazzy..

 "Yessss." said Jessica.

"My God, have some deceny!" said Sepia..

 "Decency? Him?? That's an oxymoron!" said Dabnis.

 Chip cracked up laughing...

 "Did I say something funny?" he snarled at Chip.. He didn't like that he had grossed out the women and been chastised by them in front of me..

"No, but I'm going to say something not so funny...I'm not handing over to you a damn thing or divulging what I discovered today....It has nothing to do with you...and you know and I know that you're not going to arrest me or pull my license so cut the phony intimidation tactics...You don't have a legal ground to stand on..And some advice...You need to tighten up the investigations that matter..the one's you conduct...Always arresting the wrong person, leaving key evidence to be found by Private Investigators and Defense Attorneys...You're starting to get a bad reputation amongst the ADA's...and that type of thing is going to get back to your superiors...I'd worry about that and not what I'm doing. Just a word of advice." I said.

 "Listen you...I don't need you to give me career advice...You wanna be cop...I'm a real cop!"he snarled.

 "At least that's the rumor." said Dabnis, which was followed by snickers..

"One more word outta you and I'm gonna knock your teeth down your throat!" snarled Lt. Tragg.

 ''Artie! GET OUT...OUT! I've told you about harrassing my customers..GETTTTT OUT!!! NOT TONIGHT!" said Sam Mother..

"But I haven't ordered.." he said..

 "GET OUT!, GET OUT NOW!" screamed Sam Mother.

 "THE HELL WITH YOU SAM!" he snarled and headed for the door...

It started with a slow clap and then laughter and whistles from everyone that was in the diner at the time...

Lt. Tragg was livid!

 ''That notwithstanding..We've got a lot of work to do tomorrow." I said to Jazzy..

"Indeed." said Jazzy.

(TO BE CONTINUED)